Apple changes App Store rules to allow external purchases

Apple has updated its App Store Guidelines around external payments and links in response to the injunction issued this week in the Epic v. Apple case. The changes, spotted by 9to5Mac, allow developers to steer users outside Apple’s App Store to make external purchases in compliance with the ruling.

Language has been updated in sections 3.1.1, 3.2.1(a), 3.1.3, and 3.1.3(a) of the App Store Guidelines, which all focus on acceptable purchase methods. Rules that ban apps from including “buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase” now include an exemption for apps hosted by the US storefront.

On Wednesday, judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers emphatically ruled that Apple cannot restrict app developers from including links or buttons for external purchases, interfere with app users’ choice to go to third-party sites, or impose “any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app.” Apple said it will comply with the court order while it appeals the decision.

“The App Review Guidelines have been updated for compliance with a United States court decision regarding buttons, external links, and other calls to action in apps,” Apple said in an email sent to developers, seen by 9to5Mac. “These changes affect apps distributed on the United States storefront of the App Store.”